The year in cities

There are few things that inspire me more than large cities, sprawling with buildings in all directions. I love to walk along the streets, synchronize my heartbeat with the city’s unique pulse and feel its energy while immersed by the creative chaos of mankind. There is something alluring about old cities where people have been living for generations and every corner has a history. This year I’ve seen a fair share of them.

Tokyo, Marrakesh, Ulaanbaatar, Novosibirsk, Seoul, Amsterdam, Beijing, Inverness, Irkutsk, Kyoto, Moscow, Oban, Perm, Incheon, Omsk, Zhangjiakou, Riga, Ballachulish, Qingdao, Krasnoyarsk, Ulan-Ude, Stirling, Helsinki, Balabinsk, Edinburgh, Portree, Sainshand, Essaouira, Shimonoseki, Immouzer, Hiroshima, Arvika, Luss, Zhangjiakou, Mallaig, Yekaterinburg, Pitlochry, Halmstad, Glenfinnan, Borås, Kirov, Takayama, Busan, Kungsbacka, Glasgow, Agadir, Stockholm, Fort William and many more.

During the past 8 months, I’ve visited about 50 cities in 10 countries across 9 time zones. And loving every second of it. Well, maybe not the hours I carried a heavy backpack through endless Japanese train stations with fever and sinusitis, but I recovered.

Djemaa el Fna, Marrakesh.

Memorable episodes includes getting lost in the labyrinth alleys of Marrakesh, singing Marilyn Manson songs at a karaoke bar in Tokyo, trying to find the invisible Depeche Mode bar in Moscow, listening to a Chinese band performing Rammstein covers at a bar in Qingdao, see geishas silently pass by in the Pontocho district of Kyoto, finding my favorite ice cream parlor Cold Stone Creamery in Seoul, seeing the remains of Lenin and Mao, having excellent pancakes in Amsterdam and finding the bar from Lost in Translation on 52nd floor.

Busy crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Outside the cities I also enjoyed riding horses across the grassy plains of Mongolia, sharing meals with a large Russian on the Trans-Siberian railway, driving a car across Isle of Skye and getting told to stay away from the mine fields close to the border of North Korea.

Wherever you are, relax and have a Happy New Year!